Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is a turn-based strategy/role-playing game based on the award winning Call of Cthulhu RPG. Set in the midst of World War One, the game pits your team of investigators and soldiers against an ancient enemy, one older than humanity itself...

Buy Call of Cthulhu - The Wasted Land

February 27

Hi all. We just wanted to let you all know that for various reasons we're sadly no longer in a position to do ongoing development on the project. We're still able to offer a degree of support for tech problems and plenty for gameplay questions, however the game is 'sold as seen'. This means if you have a technical problem and the solution would need to come from us updating the game, then we're not able to do that. We know the game works for the vast majority of players and it's been tested lots of by us, but if you buy it and have tried the usual (drivers updated, re-install on Steam etc) then there is not much we can do. We do still want people who love Cthulhu games (as we do!) to be able to get the game, but also want to be transparent about the position the project is in. Thanks and do email over questions etc to contact at redwaspdesign dot com and we'll do our best to answer them.

About This Game

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is a turn-based strategy/role-playing game based on the award winning Call of Cthulhu RPG. Developed in conjunction with Chaosium and based their multi-award winning Call of Cthulhu RPG. Set in the midst of World War One, the game pits your team of investigators and soldiers against an ancient enemy, one older than humanity itself... Can your team of investigators keep their grip on sanity long enough to stop these diabolical plans?

The game features:
- Full 3D graphics with high quality textures, images and effects to bring the action alive.
- Select from a range of authentic period weapons, equipment, armour, skills and more.
- Build your team up to match your gaming style; will you shred your foes with massed rifle fire or blast them with powerful spells gleaned from forbidden tomes? It's your choice!

Call of Cthulhu was originally the title of a novella by cult American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) which has, since it was published in 1928, captured the imagination of generation after generation of fans. Returning to the horror from Lovecraft's original 'Reanimator' set during the dark days of WW1, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land draws the player into a nightmare world where the terror of mustard gas and trench warfare are but a foretaste of what is to follow.

System Requirements

Minimum:

OS: Windows XP

Processor: Intel 1.6GHz Processor or equivalent

Memory: 1 GB RAM

Graphics: OpenGL compatible

DirectX: Version 9.0

Hard Drive: 400 MB available space

Sound Card: Any.

Call of Cthulhu the paper RPG is the copyright of Chaosium Inc. All game material by Red Wasp Design, copyright of Red Wasp Design Ltd except for Lovecraft's works in the public domain.

In Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land, it's basically the characters you control being dropped off for a happy-go-lucky jaunt of shooting eldritch horrors and cultists in the face, learning things man was never meant to know, and spamming lots of Psychoanlysis checks.

Really though, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is what you pay for. It's a good game, but short and sweet. It has it's replay value, but for most people, once you finish it you probably won't be touching it again, save for the extra missions. As a game, it holds up well, although it's not entirely faithful to the Mythos (we all know that the invesitgators would get their s*** slapped by these things). But, relating to the Call of Cthulhu tabletop game by Chaosium? These are all characters you may very well expect to see in any other CoC tabletop campaign.

I'd say that if you're looking for a quick game with some interesting survival elements and a fun battle system, pick this one up. But if you're looking for something a bit more in-depth and drawn out in your RPG strategy collection, this is a game that wont' be satisfying you any time soon.

played it a fair few hours. Very much a Julian Gollop style Laser Squad game and but with some seriously horrendous input HCI issues,. the controls were clearly done with a touch-screen in mind and it hasnt translated over to the PC well, also, the deal breaker; the ♥♥♥♥er crashes! Crashes to the point where I couldnt get past turn 22 on the 4th level. Screw that, lifes too short to mess around with workarounds and Windows settings. 6/10 for me, would been 8/10 if actually worked and had decent keyboard/mouse control.

Clunky!Buggy!cheesy dialogue!weapons like the Carrier Pigeon!vague directions like 'go east', but with no compass, pointer or map, so east is.... effing well where? (grrrrrr)(did I mention frustrating at times)user unfriendly in placesbut............... strangely addictiveia ia Cthulhu ftaughn!!*twitch**gibber*

TLDR - well worth it when on sale if you remember Call of Cthulhu paper and dice or have read teh books/played other mythos games/enjoy pain :P

H. P. Lovecraft entertained us with stories of madness and the unknown back in the early 20th century. Known for his works of ‘The Shadow out of Time and ‘At the Mountains of Madness’, his other work, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ is what this game is based on (obviously). Now a registered trademark of Chaosium Inc, this game is centred on The Call of Cthulhu RPG. Originally made for the iOS, the ported PC version is quite reasonable, despite its apparent handset limitations as there are no real extra features to take advantage of the PC. Yet it’s entertaining enough to finish due to its tactical nature.

The game itself has eleven missions and each one can take about an hour or so. Also note that even though the maps are quite small, it’s the nature of turned based combat that makes it longer. And as mentioned before, each mission will test a variety of skills therefore boredom won’t come easily. That said, because it’s a ported game, it’s a decent one at that however it could benefit more if the game has added features to compliment the PC world and not a direct copy from the mobile world, as highly evident from the user interface. But it’s certainly a decent game to play despite the lack of features that you come to expect from a good turned based game like Silent Storm, Gorky or the Jagged Alliance series. Plenty of love was poured into this game so it’s a worthwhile trip that pays respectable homage to H. P. Lovecraft.

Despite an abysmal UI, this is still a game worth playing. I really enjoyed the campaign, as short and straighforward as it was and I empathized with the characters in my team. I spent most of the game trying to make sure they didn't die, though they did go insane from time to time. :-)

I'd give this game a solid 7/10 and would recommend to fans of the Cthulu tabletop RPG. A good game to get on sale.

Love the theme. Hate the implementation. The interface and controls are clunky. No background music to set any mood during battles. Interface would become unresponsive to clicks at various times. Occasional game lockups during transitions from mission to mission that required a restart of the game.

I'm really on the fence on this one. 5/10I'll give it a thumbs up only because of the lovecraftian theme, the creepy main menu music and a semi-decent strategy thing going for it. Otherwise, don't pay full price for it. Get it cheap or in a bundle.

A simple strategy game that gets more complex as more and more enemies are added later on. An enjoyable Lovecraftian plot and fun gameplay makes this a great experience. Also, for a mobile game, has a lot of game play. Took me 9 hours to beat the campaign.

The game itself is an X-Com lite, but an enjoyable one.With an attentive Lovecraftian theme.And Nazi's.

Plays much like 'Halfway' which is another 'Diddy 'Com' that I likes. Not had any issue with the UI as mentioned by some, found it easy to manage (can't figure out how to use the tonics just yet, but I figure that's more me than the game)

Some nice ideas (automatic overwatch) all nicely put together, your squad of investigators/soldiers are a motley bunch, with characters that fit the World well.

What I've seen so far, I have liked, and at this early stage I can see no reason not to reccomend this puppy to those who find enjoyment in titles like 'X-Com' (or more specifically, 'Halfway') ..should this change as I progress further into the game (like the reported crashes around level 4) I will ammend this review.

“A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain - a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space .... Therefore we must judge a weird tale not by the author's intent, or by the mere mechanics of the plot; but by the emotional level which it attains at its least mundane point... The one test of the really weird is simply this - whether or not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes and entities on the known universe's utmost rim.”

DO NOT BUY THIS! The controls are abysmal at best. Loved the original paper based RPG, so I felt compelled to try this little strategy game which looks like a turn based X-com style game. After reading how it is supposed to function in the in game guide, I still cannot get my soldiers to do more than walk around. They will not target or shoot enemies. When you attempt to select an enemy target, it does select the enemy; however, it is as if it simply jumps to an information screen about that enemy while forgetting the original player's unit who was supposed to be 'targeting' the enemy unit. Thus no attack options pop up. Reading some of the producer's website, it sounds as if this might have been developed as a touchscreen tablet ap game, where it may work well for all I know. I'm not a touchscreen tablet user. I have a PC. I opted out of the 'new' Windows experience, not wanting a glorified tablet operating system on my PC, and I do not have a touch screen on my PC. The game currently feels unplayable. I may tinker with it enough to get it to 'unwieldy,' or I may just save the data space on my HDD, as I don't feel much need to trouble shoot games that are supposedly post production.

[After more effort to play and to respond to some comments]:Oh I've done both. There is some sort of indeterminate lag on input in this game that makes no sense at all. The UI in this game is TERRIBLE. Appearance is fine, but over half the time it doesn't detect the presence of the cursor over a button, or, alternatively, it simply doesn't register most mouse clicks. Since there is no UI feedback to let you know you _are_ hovering over the hotspot for a button, it's anyones guess as to which is the case. I have finally got to see a targeting box, or I'd have deleted long ago. A diehard Cthulu or Lovecraft fan might tolerate this game, and I don't feel cheated at the price I payed for it since I am a Lovecraftian, but most 70's Atari games had better response/detection of user input than this game does, AND IT'S NOT EVEN REAL TIME, it's a turn based strategy game. Clicking a random number of times from 2 to 20 to get the game to acknowledge input, from character upgrade screens, dialogue screens, and combat turns doesn't make for smooth game play. Feels like the developers were pushed to roll the product out before it was fully play tested, like most EA products are done. Don't really expect that in indie type games.

Chaosium should be ASHAMED to have their name splash in the intro to this dreck. The writing is infantile, the controls are almost unusable because they didn't even have the courtesy to polish it for the PC release. It's like they've never designed a game for a mouse before. Baffling.

The statistics, turn-based combat-style and "pen & paper" elements are buzzwords used as a ruse to lure you into purchasing something incredibly shallow.

Halfway through the first level they want you to hold a trench for 15 turns while enemies attack. All you have to do is continously end turn and overwatch will wipe everything. And that's a better alternative to fighting through the multiple clicks to get a single shot off (which ends up being a "miss" anyway.

TL:DR Some crap that would have been slightly better if outsourced to wherever.

Beaten The Game on Hard in 7 Hours. so this is a final opinion for those choosing to buy the game.Wasn't Awfully hard, compared to a game of Classic Difficulty XCOM. Which is absolutely titanic in size and im going to be comparing this Sadly but Admitably Inferior Product to. I feel like ive gotten my moneys worth in this game, i'll try the DLC another day but here is my two cents.

The people who are complaining about the game's controls in the reviews are pretty stupid, sure i found problems initally with UI where clicking anything didn't work. Restarted and worked flawlessly. Following the Tutorial, for people who don't get it. You CLICK YOUR UNIT that you want to attack with and then RIGHT CLICK on the enemy you want to attack, you can keep the Attack Tab up at the same time, so you can change weapons which is nice. You can also tilt the game environment with the arrows at the side of the screen. (You know, the ones that are sorta spinning.) Its inconveienent but its not all that bad. The funny thing is if you actually listen to the tutorial it explains it, i think the tutorial should be implimented into the campaign rather than a option of the latter as it helps alot with the UI.

The Combat for the most part is about pushing forward and keeping the team together, if you go in thinking this is like XCOM you will get thrashed by trying to camp in the later levels. The enemies will just continually respawn at certain points until you know nothing but multiple Cthuhid's (Like im telling you what THAT is!) crushing you into dust. Its barely XCOM as we know it, Overwatch is no longer a command you can initalise, instead you simply hold left over points for Overwatch and to my knowledge they do not pass over to the next turn of play. Which means you should leech every single action point out of your characters to maximise efficency. Otherwise your just going to lose it shooting a creature you don't want to shoot at, which is already in your line of sight. Some of the Enemies in the game are strictly for tanking, and they will become a serious hazard if you don't get your guys with shotguns upgraded. Melee units are literally amazing against the later Cthuhids later in the game, but look absolutely silly with a guy with a tiny shovel taking down a abberation half his size.

Sanity becomes a Massive issue towards the end of the game, nearly all your soldiers will go insane if you do not have either your investigators a Sanity Restoration book on them. Also max up any Sanity based ablities as they will help you later on. The enemy pacing is nice, and i like how the gameplay becomes from fighting humans to outright nightmares, especially the slow leaning on taking Sanity more seriously above Mustard Gas protection.

Its enjoyable but might be frustrating for those who just aren't used to turn based strategy games. You need to plan things out for the long run, looking over the map design and finding what route is easier. I'd say Gas Masks are redundant once you've got your main soldiers kitted out and your investigators their own Gas Masks, especially towards the end of the game. Its also pretty important you build your team specifically to synergise with each other and to keep pushing forward. As long as your team compliments each other, you will always be moving forward or at least working towards a end goal.

Gameplay however has plenty of flaws, the Lack of a Cover System makes human combat rather awkward, moments where your not sure if a bit of a building is cover or a small cubby hole to shoot through are plenty and there are a few hinderance with UI but i found the game pretty much doesn't really have too many of them and looks simple to fix with a simple patch.

The Graphics are a major problem, i mean they look okay for the asthetic but they could defintely be more repulsive or have something more to it. I Appreciate the attempt by the developers but it is definitely not a pretty game and i feel if they put more into the actual graphics, it'd look okay. They aren't really what get in the way.

The Story isn't all that interesting but its not completely dull, often there are these particularly tense( or Annoying.) Sections where your Main Protagonist is taken into a small dream and forced to do a stand against various foreshadowing creatures. Its nice to see it and i found it short but a good way to earn some extra xp, which your going to need. The Antgonist is rather forgettable sadly, i don't really see why he has much of a story to begin with. Im much more interested into one of the investigator's Backstory.(Not going to spoil it for those who are really into this.) Im not going to spoil things but the locations are vaguely interesting, its nice to see a WW1 Scene rather than the sorts of horror locations i typically expect in games these days.

The Music and Voice Acting is next to non-existent, which for a £3 Game.. Im not complaining. I didn't expect to have that much fun with it as i did, but i was pleasantly surprised, being both a XCOM fan and a Fan of the Original works so it practically screamed BUY to me.

Its £3, or $5. Seriously, i can think of ice cream more expensive than that and ive had alot more fun with this game than any amount of Ice Cream ive dared to eat. (Yes you can use that on the cover or Whatever.)

I think with a few gameplay tweaks, a massive improvement to graphics and sound. Overall a larger and higher quality game, you have a potential competitor to XCOM with a great universe to base itself from.

TL:DR?

I Recommend, Lots of Fun for the strategy fan, Cheap ($5 People! 5!) and Short piece inbetween bigger titles. Needs Gameplay Overhauls and a even bigger Graphical Overhaul, with sound for a potential sequel for PC, otherwise.

Sadly one of those games where the PC optimisation is lacking if not totally absent. Commands work sporadically, focus changes without reason and the keyboard commands are not at all intuitive. It may have been a great tablet game but it is not living up to it on PC.